Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Coming into Tuesday night's game against Michigan State, the Illini had lost three games in a row since their win over Ohio State. Two of those losses came against Minnesota and Penn State on the road. Sitting squarely on the bubble with a back-loaded league schedule -- six of their final ten games were against ranked teams and four of those games are on the road -- it should be quite obvious just how badly Illinois needed to beat the Spartans. Continue reading...

You could argue that Iowa State's Royce White is the most important player in the country. Is there a single player who carries the team on his shoulders more than the Minnesota-transfer.
The power forward does it all. He can handle the ball, defend, rebound, shoot, and when necessary, take the ball coast-to-coast for a power-dunk in traffic.
Continue reading...

Before we officially move on from the #BIAHRoadTrip, there are a number of thank yous that we need to hand out.

But first, credit needs to be given where credit is due. This road trip wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Troy. He put together the schedule, he found the hotels, he did about 70% of the driving and he was straight up paparazzi-esque with his camera during the games.

7:00 pm: No. 10 Michigan State @ Illinois: After winning their first 10 games of the season, the Illini have hit a rough patch. They've lost six of the last 11 games, including three in a row in league play to drop to 4-4. Illinois also has one of the toughest schedules down the stretch of the season. Of their last ten games, six of them come against ranked teams, four of which are on the road. That puts a tremendous amount importance on these home games. Continue reading...

With Marcus Denmon shooting 3-12 from the field, Kim English struggling to get himself open and Phil Pressey turning the ball over, the Tigers needed a spark, and they got it from the man they rely on to be a game-changer. Michael Dixon scored 21 points on 9-10 shooting from the floor, sparking two different runs that push Missouri's lead into double figures. After Texas made a run and took the lead in the final minute, it was Dixon's driving layup that won the game for the Tigers.

He may be Missouri's fourth-leading scorer at 12.1 ppg, but he's yet to start a game this season, playing 25.1 mpg as the change of pace that Frank Haith uses.Continue reading...

No. 4 Missouri 67, Texas 66: I've said this before and I truly believe it -- the sign of a good team is that they can go on the road, play poorly and still come away with a win. That's exactly what Missouri did on Monday night. They didn't shoot all that well, they made poor decisions down the stretch and they blew a 10 point lead with four minutes left in the game. And they still won.

They can thank Michael Dixon for that. The nation's second-best sparkplug (sorry, Mike, Dion Waiters still has you beat right now) finished with 21 points, hitting his first eight shots from the floor and closing out the game on a driving, left-handed layup with 31 seconds left in the game after Texas had gone on a 13-2 run to take a 66-65 lead. He doesn't look all that smooth when he's dribbling and his jump shot is far from what you would call textbook, but he simply gets it done. Its such a weapon for Frank Haith to be able to bring in a scorer that is that potent off the bench.Continue reading...

Monday, January 30, 2012

Over the last couple of seasons, BracketBusters has become less and less relevant. Between the lack of marquee games and the fact that the losers of the matchups tend to be hurt more than the winners are helped, there has been a fairly strong reaction to the event. Some have even dubbed it BracketEliminators.

This season isn't all that different. With the notable exception being that the two marquee games are quite appealing, ESPN once again put together a schedule that doesn't necessarily help all of the teams involved. Those with slim at-large hopes are putting them at risk for a game that won't be the answer to their NCAA Tournament problems.

Putting all that aside and focusing on what will happen on the court, there should be plenty of excitement in February's third weekend. Without further ado, here are the 13 TV games, ranked in order of watchability.

LOGAN, UT - Stew Morrill has built Utah State into a power in the WAC. They've won seven regular season titles since 2000 and made eight NCAA Tournaments in that time. To get an idea of the level that this program has reached, think about this: they packed the 10,270 seat Dee Glen Smith Spectrum at more than 80% capacity -- over 90% capacity in the 4,000 seat student section -- in a down year and it was still considered a mediocre crowd.

Granted, he did take over a team coming off of an NCAA Tournament appearance in 1998, but before Larry Eustachy built that team into a winner, the Aggies hadn't been to an NCAA Tournament in a decade. Recruiting players to spend the winter in Logan, UT, a small town in the northeast corner of Utah that sits squarely in one of the most religious areas of our country, is not an easy sell.

9:00 pm: No. 4 Missouri @ Texas: Missouri bounced back from a bad loss at Oklahoma State by knocking off Texas Tech over the weekend, but that doesn't mean that the result didn't resonate. Look, road losses are going to happen in the power conference, the issue is the way that teams responded to them. Texas is not a bad basketball team. They have a star in J'Covan Brown and enough perimeter talent that they will be able to matchup with the Tiger's four guard sets. Missouri is currently sitting in second place in the Big 12, tied with Baylor one game behind Kansas. Continue reading...

The UNLV transfer has been one of the nation's most surprising stars this season, and this week he once again showed why he is such a dangerous and versatile threat. In two games this week, Moser averaged 22.5 ppg, 16.5 rpg and 2.5 spg while shooting 15-29 from the floor and 5-13 from three. I think its safe to say that UNLV wouldn't currently be sitting in a tie for first place in the Mountain West Conference had Moser done any less; the Rebels were 2-0 this week with both wins coming in overtime. Moser played 72 of the available 90 minutes. Continue reading...

We've finally made it back from our treacherous 6,492 mile, 23 day road trip. Because I spent a majority of the time at the wheel or on press row, I didn't get a chance to capture as many #POSTERIZED entries as I would like.

The college hoops world didn't hit the pause button while we were travelling, so I'm making up for lost time.

Here are a bunch of the #POSTERIZED dunks from the past week or so that may have gone unnoticed.

Towson's Erique Gumbs against UNC-Wilmington, 1/28

Is this a fantastic dunk? No, it's not. I'm not even sure it's #POSTERIZED-worthy by itself. But when you add the fact that Towson hadn't won a game since December 2010, and that this dunk sealed the victory, then, yes, it's absolutely #POSTERIZED-worthy.

Vanderbilt's Lance Gouldbourne against Middle Tennessee State, 1/28

On a team with Festus Ezeli, John Jenkins, Jeffery Taylor and Brad Tinsley, Lance Gouldbourne doesn't get too much publicity. But this guy can fly. He did it a couple times last season, and he did it against MTSU this weekend.

Syracuse's Dion Waiters against West Virginia, 1/28

Dion Waiters may not get very vertical when he dunks, but he makes up for it by throwing down with ferocity. This dunk may not look overly flashy, but trust me, it's more than worthy of a #POSTERIZED mention.

Colorado's Andre Roberson against Arizona State, 1/26

He may only be a sophomore, but this kid can flat-out fly. He's arguably the best dunker in the Pac-12 and one of the best leapers in the country.

North Carolina's Harrison Barnes against North Carolina State, 1/26

Oh, it's just a run-of-the-mill Black Falcon one-handed super-tip-jam. Since Barnes loves to play on the perimeter so much, and because he's got such a freakish wing-span, he is a nightmare for any defender trying to box him out. For North Carolina State, this is what a nightmare looks like.

DePaul's Jamee Crockett against Rutgers, 1/25

There is nothing DePaulful about this jam. Crockett throws down a nasty two-handed jam against Rutgers, which helped give the Blue Demons their second conference win of the season.

In this day and age, us media-types have to be on top of everything with in the world of college hoops. Sometimes it means writing a response about a missed goaltending call. Sometimes it means posting a video about a new fan anthem.

And sometimes, it means posting video about the parent of a player doing "The Bernie".

Hopefully this is the last time I have to waste words writing about this.

What you see here is Carol Wiltjer, the mother of Kentucky freshman Kyle Wiltjer, doing "The Bernie", (H/T AllKyHoops.com)

I'm not sure why she's doing it, nor do I care.

But she's doing it. Horribly, yes but she's doing it nonetheless.

Since Kyle plays D-I basketball, I'm responsible for covering things like this. Listen, I love "The Bernie". I never want it to go away.

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